


"Knud The Mighty"

by WithywindlesDaughter



Series: Baby Durins [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Dis & Nali got it going on, Dis is not at all surprised, Fluff, He's just a barn cat, Kili and Fili have a secret, Kitten fluff, Knud - Freeform, Knud thinks Thorin has very interesting things, Nali thinks this is a bad idea, They think this is a great idea, Thorin thinks Knud has a nice pelt, and dead mousie gifts, and very pecky, because spraying, chickens are mean, dwarf fluff, scrubbing floors is hard work, then he thinks it's great!, they do not like each other, thorin - Freeform, until Thorin comes home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 05:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4775387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithywindlesDaughter/pseuds/WithywindlesDaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kili and Fili are always bringing home animals. Dis and Nali take it in stride until the night they bring home a kitten. Then it gets complicated!</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Knud The Mighty"

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to RM.A
> 
> Thank you.

 

**Baby Durins**

**“Knud the Mighty”**

**Dedicated to RM.A**

  


“Kili, you set the table. Fili, you may start by bringing out the bread.”

“Yes, Amad!”

“Hello the house!”

“Adad! Adad!”

Nali, husband of Dis, walked in the door of their little house in Erid Luin, all golden braids and smiling eyes. He was broad and sturdy, walking with a relaxed, easygoing manner, speaking of a Dwarf happy to be home to his family. He hung up his coat and scooped up his two young sons, hefting them both up into his strong arms and bouncing them to make them squeak and giggle. “What manner of scoundrels have I found in my home? Dis, what kind of company are you keeping?”

The boys wriggled and squirmed. “Supper, Adad! Amad made roast chickens!”

“Did she now?”

Dis walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. “Aye. I took the hatchet to those two hens that stopped laying. We’ll need to put the broody hen over some eggs soon.”

Nali swaggered forward, the boys swinging from his arms. “Hello, Beautiful.”

“Hello your own self.” She stepped up and gave him a slow, heavy-lidded kiss, ignoring the choking and gagging sounds coming from their offspring.

Nali let the boys go and they darted back into the kitchen to finish the table. “How was your day?”

“Busy,” she replied. “Your sons helped me plant the new seedlings in the garden.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, my sons, is it?” Slipping his hands around her waist he kissed her again, slowly. “How bad was it?”

“Before or after the dirt clod fight?”

“That couldn’t have been good.”

“I had to scrub them down under the pump handle.”

“You are a brave woman.” He gave her hips a little squeeze. “A beautiful, brave woman.”

“Amad! We set the table!”

Nali kissed her again. “A beautiful woman with food!”

“Come on you.” She took his hand and led him into the little kitchen. True to the boys promise a roasting pan with two chickens sat atop the large wood burning stove. Dis grabbed two hand towels and carried it over to the table and the boys watched wide-eyed as Nali carefully lifted the chickens out onto a platter for carving while she returned the pan to the stovetop to make gravy. There were mashed root vegetables, a full bowl of crusty, dark bread, butter, several types of preserves, a wedge of cheese, cooked greens, pickles and a collection of preserved vegetables from Dis’ root cellar.

Nali doled out a leg and a thigh to each to his small sons along with some root mash which Dis poured the gravy for. Each boy got a heaping serving of vegetables and their own loaf of bread. Raising Dwarflings took a lot of food, so nothing was allowed to go to waste. But Dis’ food was always good and the boys got down to the serious business of eating while the adults set a more leisurely pace, discussing the happenings of the day, a sale Nali had made and some commissions he had picked-up at his family’s carpentry shop, Dis’ garden planting project and her thoughts about planting some fruit trees.

“May I have some more chicken?” Fili asked, holding up his plate.

“Of course.” Nali carved off another leg quarter.

“Me too!” Kili held up his plate.

“Are you sure you can eat that much?” Nali asked.

Kili nodded enthusiastically. “I’m hungry!”

“I think Kili’s getting ready for another growth spurt,” Dis mused. “He’s been packing in the food lately.” Neither parents saw the looks the boys gave each other.

Supper was finished, the boys sent out to chase the chickens back into their coop for the night and make sure the pony had grass and water. Nali toted the leftovers down to the cold cellar while Dis started the washing up. Both boys finished their chores, scrubbed their hands and faces in the wash basin and trotted upstairs to their room.

“They are being very secretive,” commented Nali as he came to the sink to help.

Dis smiled. “They have some little scheme going on. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

Nali leaned over and kissed her shoulder. “Let them hide up there with their secret. I get time alone with the most lovely Dwarrowdam in all of the Blue Mountains.”

Dis chuckled, a low, warm sound. “Wash faster.”

**********

Once the door was firmly shut and their parents occupied Fili and Kili tiptoed carefully around the room, peering under beds and behind chests. They even looked inside the tall standing chest that held their gear.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“What if he got out?”

“We’ve had the door closed all day, Ki. Besides, Amad would have noticed.”

As it was the object of their search was curled up asleep on the rumpled blankets of the boy’s bed. It’s first response to the noise was to twitch its ears, then it opened its eyes watchfully, still sleepy and warm and not yet inclined to move.

“Let’s put the chicken out,” Fili suggested. “Maybe he will come out of hiding.”

Hidden in the far corner of the room, behind Kili’s bed, was a wooden crate packed with straw and two small bowls. The boys dug into their pockets and pulled out a chicken leg each and carefully started pulling the meat off. Perhaps drawn by the smell their actions were answered by a soft thud on the wooden floor.

“There he is!”

“Knud - come get some good chicken. Are you hungry?”

A small, tawny kitten with dark grey dapples was eyeing them from the floor near the foot of Kili’s bed. The tufty ears swiveled as it sniffed the air.

“Let’s move back so he can eat,” Fili gently pulled his brother up onto the bed and they sat together, watching the little animal as it padded towards the bowl of food. It sniffed at a chicken leg, licked it a few times then grabbed a bone and pulled it backwards until he had maneuvered it around behind the box. The boys were fascinated and spent the hour or so just watching him eat, drink water from the bowl and wander around. Finally he crawled into the box and burrowed down into the straw to sleep.

Kili yawned, trying to stay awake. Fili got up and dug out their sleep shirts and they changed for bed, Kili immediately burrowing down under the blankets. Fili piled their clothes on the chair, blew out the candle in the little safety lamp on the bedside table and climbed in next to his brother.

******

“Your mustache braids are tickling me.”

“Good.”

Downstairs Dis and Nali were sharing some quality alone time in front of the common room fire, that evening’s projects abandoned in favor of cuddling and kisses in the quiet warmth. She reached up and stroked a long golden braid. “I never did get to those letters I was supposed to write to the Iron Hills.”

“And I never got around to fixing the loose floorboard in the washroom,” he mused, running calloused fingertips lightly down her wrist. He smiled a slow, warm smile at her, all dimples and sparkling eyes.

She reached up and gently brushed a lock of hair away from his face. “Let us adjourn to the bedroom.”

“I think that is an excellent idea.” He helped her up off the rug. “You bank the fire, I’ll check on the boys.”

“Agreed.”

Nali made his way up the stairs, fully expecting the boys to still be awake, giggling and playing while they waited to be tucked in. “But we are not tiiiiirrred…” He was surprised to find them both asleep. He walked softly over to the bed and pulled the blankets tighter around them, careful not to cover Kili’s feet. Kili always had hot feet. He stroked the hair from their foreheads as he contemplated what a blessed Dwarf he was.

Assured that all was well he rose from the bed and was on his way out the door when he heard a rustling sound behind him. Turning with candle in hand he expected to maybe see a mouse skittering along the floorboards. Instead he noticed an odd collection of items on the floor in the corner. Approaching carefully he squatted in front of a small wooden crate stuffed with straw. He was used to the boys bringing home the odd bit of wildlife - frogs, small snakes, once even a fledgling bird. He reached out to push the grass aside to see what it was this time only to recoil as he heard a sharp hisssssss! for his efforts. What did they have in there, anyway?

Retreating to the hall he called down. “Dis, would you come up here please?”

Dis secured the fire screen in place and went up the stair. “What is it? Are the boys unwell?”

“I think I have discovered their little scheme,” Nali answered.

“Oh? What is it this time?” And by this time she meant one in a long string of schemes and happenstance trouble they had managed to brew up.

“Some kind of animal they have hidden in there. I can’t tell what.”

“Yavanna be kind! Not again!” It seemed to be in the nature of small boys to bring home wild animals and hide them in their rooms. “Let’s go look.”

The boys were still asleep so they approached the box carefully. This time a little head popped up out of the straw.

“It’s a kitten,” whispered Dis.

“Really?” Nali leaned into to look. Sure enough, kitten. “What are we going to do with it?”

“It’s not staying in here,” she whispered. “Get me something to cover the top of this crate. He can sleep in the barn.”

 

Later, cuddled in bed and happy, Nali started laughing gently.

“What?” Dis looked up from where she was using his broad chest as a pillow.

“Just how long did they think they could keep it in there before we noticed?”

“I don’t know, they had that snake up there for awhile. I only found it when it curled around the washbasin to cool off.”

“Maybe he’ll turn into a good barn cat.”

“Mmmm…” Dis snuggled in under his shoulder. “Keep the mice out of my grain.”

He leaned down and kissed her hair. “Good night, Gimlelul. Dream sweet.”

She hummed. “Good night, Sanâzyung.”

 ****  


Morning saw two very contrite Dwarflings sitting at the kitchen table eating grain porridge and rashers of bacon while their parents discussed the day ahead. “I’m going to start those commissions we have at the shop,” Nali said. “But I will make sure to come home in time to fix the washroom floor.”

“Speaking of floors,” Dis cast a glance at both of her sons. “I think today would be a good day for floor scrubbing. And we should think about making soap soon. We have enough fat and ash saved up and the rains have stopped.”

“I’ll get the things from the shed for you before I go.”

“Thank you, my love.”

The boys looked at each other across the table mournfully. Undoubtedly they would be spending the day on their hands and knees with scrub brushes in their hands. And soap making - that was two days of disagreeable work in the heat and the smell was so bad it was all done out in the yard.

When they were done Nali went to get the things to process the ashes into lye and render the fat down for soap. Dis picked up a small bowl from the counter and asked her sons “Shall we go feed the kitten?”

They jumped up from the table. “Yes! Yes!”

“Can I feed him? He likes me!” Kili waved his small hands at the bowl.

“I’d like to have a look at him,” said Nali, walking back in the door and handing Dis her keys. “We couldn’t really see him in the dark.”

“Okay…” The boys trotted out in front of them and opened the barn door carefully. They looked around the box but did not see the little animal.

“Knud,” Kili called. “Come get some food.”

“He’s in Springfoot’s stall,” Fili waved them over. Sure enough, the little cat was hopping around in the loose bedding while the pony watched with mild interest.

Looking closely, Nali asked “Boys, where did you find this kitten?”

“He’s an orphan,” answered Fili. “His mother took all the other kittens away but not him.”

“And did she look like him?” asked Dis.

“Um, no,” answered Kili. “Only he looked like him.”

They watched as “Knud” carefully approached the dish of finely chopped meat and sniffed it. The kitten, upon closer inspection, had a stumpy tail, and each ear sported a black tuft of fur and a white spot on the back. Dis and Nali looked at each other. If it wasn’t for Nali’s brightly amused smile Dis would have thrown her hands up. Our sons brought home a baby lynx! Why a lynx?

“Boys, I want you to look at me,” Nali said. They tore themselves away from watching Knud eat. “This kitten is a wild animal. He is not a pet and he will not be friendly like Springfoot or the village cats. Do you understand?”

The boys nodded, wide-eyed. “Yes, Adad.”

“He may live in the barn as long as he eats the mice,” Nali went on. “And he is not to come into the house. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Adad.”

Nali and Dis looked at each other. Just what were they signing on for?

 ****  
  


True to their fears, their mother marched Kili and Fili back to their room, a bucket of soapy water and two scrub brushes in tow. “Now,” she instructed. “Since you have seen fit to keep an animal up here with no place to relieve itself you will scrub these floors until they are clean. Not your “clean” but my “clean”. I shall take your bedding down to the washroom.

“Yes, Amad!”

Each boy took a brush, dipped it into the soapy water and started scrubbing. From experience they knew those boards would have to be spotless before she would pronounce them good enough. Kili sighed dramatically. Fili just started scrubbing hard at the nearest stain. Wasn’t the first time and certainly would not be the last.

 

Out in the barn “Knud” the half-lynx was exploring his new home. There were no other cats, but there had been food, there was water to lick off his paws and Springfoot was interesting enough. Wandering towards the bright light coming in through the door he found himself looking out into the yard. He saw Dis standing at a low table with a wooden barrel on top of it and a bucket underneath, slowly and carefully pouring water into the barrel. In fact, he saw many interesting things, but what really interested him were the fat hens that were scratching and pecking their way through the short grass.

He crept out, keeping a wary eye on Dis. Moving from tuft of grass to tuft of grass, he slowly crept up on the nearest bird, a fat, broody hen with yellow-brown feathers and stalked her. She was, of course, many times his size and he had never seen his mother dispatch anything larger than a mouse, but that did not deter him. The hen scratched and pecked, oblivious of the danger she was in. He crouched, wriggled and prepared to spring.

“Knud, what are you doing?”

The voice froze him in his tracks. It also alerted the chickens to his presence. Several hens noticed him at once and he was surrounded by large, hostile birds with sharp beaks and stout wings. Retreat suddenly seemed like a good idea. Turning back towards the barn door proved to be a bad idea. He felt a terrible sting on his rump and yowled, trying to leap out of the way, the the hens were blocking his forward progress with their sharp beaks and cold eyes.

The hens advanced upon him and he flattened himself out, hissing with his ears down. It seemed that he was in for some real hurt from the big birds when all of a sudden Dis was there, shooing the hens away and scooping him up off the ground. “No chicken for you, little cat.”

She carefully inspected the peck on his rump and set the little animal down next to his box. “You live in the barn. Stick to the barn mice.” She admonished him.

 

He did stick to the barn where it was safe and there were mice and Kili and Fili would visit him every day. Some days they just cleaned and refilled his water bowl, running out again after a few pets. Some days they would take him up into their hiding place in the loft, where they would eat pickles and hide from the adults. He liked the loft where he could stalk around in the hay, chase the mice that found their way up there and lay next to the boys where it was warm. At first they carried him, then he learned to get up and down the ladder by himself. Usually they’d have a little treat for him in their pockets. He would lurk up in the loft, watching them at their chores down below. He even learned to climb up on their shoulders from the stall rail and make a general nuisance of himself until fed.

 

Knud did eventually manage to find his way outside of the barn and back into the yard where he was the bane of all manner of small rodent and songbird. Dis would talk to him while she worked in the garden or tended to the hateful chickens and he in turn would leave little dead mousy-gifts for her on the back porch. Sometimes he would clamber up into the windowsill and watch her work in the kitchen.

“I thought that animal wasn’t allowed in the house,” Nali commented as he walked by.

“He’s not in the house,” responded Dis. “He’s in the window and he’s keeping me company while I work.”

Nali slid his arms around her waist. “Are you sure you’re not feeding him?”

Knud watched him suspiciously. Nali was the only dwarf at the little homestead who was not feeding him.

“He’s a very good hunter,” Dis replied, avoiding the question. “That’s why I find dead mice on the doorstep.”

“That you make me clean up for you.”

Knud was watching the roast Dis had been trussing up with twine. It was destined to go into the big stove but right now it lay unguarded on the table. Usually Dis would give him little scraps of trimmed meat and fat, but she was distracted. Quietly he slipped from the windowsill to the drainboard and leapt gracefully from the drainboard to the kitchen table. He reached forward, that whole big hunk of meat within his grasp…

A moment later he was back out in the yard, having been unceremoniously dumped there by Nali who had grabbed him before he could grab the roast. He yowled in protest, his back feet kicking, claws extended.

“You belong outside,” Nali said firmly. “Back to the barn with you.”

Nali was not an unkind dwarf, but he did not enjoy the notion of his family dinner going into the belly of a half-wild barn cat. Knud slunk back towards the yard, taking a frustrated swipe at a hen that wandered too close. (He had never really gotten over being pecked on the rump when he was a kitten.)

 

All went well until one night when a stranger arrived at the little barn that was Knud’s home. He was a Dwarf, but much taller than Nali. He did not smell like Knud’s family nor any of the friends who came to play with the boys. This tall stranger came in out of the cold, damp weather leading a tired pony laden with interesting-looking bundles. Knud had been snuggled down next to Springfoot in the pony’s deep bedding but was jolted awake when he clambered up to greet the new arrival. The strange Dwarf did not notice him, but his pony did, snorting and stomping his hoof. Knud quickly padded up the ladder to get a safer view from the loft.

The Dwarf rubbed his pony’s face and stepped outside where Knud could not see him. When he returned the Dwarf was holding a lantern to hang while he unpacked and groomed his pony. First he dumped some hay into the shaggy animal’s manger and went to fetch a bucket of water for him. Knud watched everything from his secret perch above. He was especially interested in those canvas-wrapped parcels. He wanted to get down and stiff at them, perhaps spray a few just so other cats would know who they belonged to. He wanted to very, very much…

Nali and Dis were roused from bed by loud and angry shouting coming from outside. Immediately he was on his feet and reaching for his boots. “Go check on the boys. Stay in the house.”

Dis threw her cloak on around her shoulders and ran up the stair in the dark. Carefully slipping through the boy’s door she knelt at the edge of their bed and stroked their foreheads gently, relieved when they both stirred a little in their sleep. Suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of wild yowling and a voice she recognised as her brother yelling. Gathering her cloak about her she went back down the stair and peered out the kitchen window.

Nali and Thorin were standing in the open barn doorway. Nali had his hands on his hips, his sword strapped to his side. Thorin was gesturing wildly at something in the barn and Dis thought she knew what. She tried to get out the kitchen door as quietly as possible.

“What do you think you’re doing keeping a wild animal like that?” Thorin was yelling.

“He’s not wild,” Nali was insisting. “He’s a barn cat and he keeps the mice out of the animal feed.”

“Hush you two!” Dis admonished them. “You’ll wake the boys up!”

“That animal attacked me,” Thorin was very angry. “He leaped on my back while I was unpacking Minty!”

Nali almost doubled over laughing. Dis checked his back - of course Knut’s small claws had not gone through Thorin’s thick travel cloak. “Honestly, Thorin. He’s just a barn cat.”

“Give me but a moment and I’ll turn him into a nice pelt for you.”

Dis turned to her husband. “Go make sure Knud is unharmed. Then help Thorin with his burdens. I’ll get the fire going.” She reached up and pressed foreheads with her brother. “Welcome home you grumpy Dwarf.”

 

From that day on Thorin and Knud carefully avoided each other. Thorin loudly disapproved of keeping a wild animal as a pet. Knud loudly disapproved of horin. Whenever they encountered each other in the barn they maintained a loudly defined distance, Thorin’s brows knitting at Knud with disapproval, Knud giving Thorin the evil eye. Usually Knud was content to spy at him from his perch in the loft, sometimes with Fili and Kili next to him. Sometimes, if Thorin had something new and interesting he’d climb down for a closer look.

Thorin quickly learned to keep things out of reach when he found the cat dragging a fresh otter pelt away to secret it in his corner behind his box. “Hey!” he went to retrieve it, ignoring the animal which spit angrily at him. “That’s not cured yet! It will be rotten before the moon’s turned.” Knud responded by going out to sit next next to Dis in the garden and throwing an epic sulk. Later, Thorin caught him sharpening his claws on Minty’s saddle as it sat on the stall rail. The time after that he found a dead mouse shoved into his saddlebag.

“Little devil,” he grumped. “He has it out for me.”

“He’s just a barn cat,” Dis reminded him.

Finally, one day, Knud found a peace offering in the form of several cured squirrel pelts draped across the top of his box. They even had the tails attached. He wasted no time in dragging them over into his bedding, where he rolled on them and pressed his cheek glands all over them so no other cat would think to take them. Then he spent the rest of the afternoon “killing” the fluffy tails.

Thorin found no more dead mousies in his gear, but he still sometimes caught sight of the animal watching him from over the edge of his box…  

 ****  
  
  


********

**  
“Knud” has many meanings as a name. It can mean “daring, impudent and bold”, but it is also a word that is sometimes used for the last of something, or “stop”.**

 

 

 

She Little Violette drew these wonderful pics of Fili, Kili and Knud! I am so excited!!!

http://violette-pleasures.tumblr.com/post/139462986399/no-kili-youre-holding-him-wrong-no-m

 

    

“No, Kili! You’re holding him wrong!”

“No ’m not…he likes to be carried like this…”

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I remember stories of my mother's life growing up in the Pacific Northwest during the Great Depression. Somehow the family ended up with a cat that was half-bobcat. She said he was a huge thing that stole an entire roast off the kitchen counter. Our family could never be normal.


End file.
